


Don't Be Hasty

by saygoodbyetoyourchildhood



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-01
Updated: 2013-03-01
Packaged: 2017-12-03 23:31:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saygoodbyetoyourchildhood/pseuds/saygoodbyetoyourchildhood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And then she's in his bathroom washing her face and he's punching the wall</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Be Hasty

She'd been around long before he noticed her. She was quiet, a shadow, flitting in and out of the Cafe Musain. It takes him a while before he notices she exists. And once he notices that it's easy to spot the pattern of her visits. If Marius is there, she is. If he isn't, she isn't. 

She's young, high school still, probably. One day she's at a meeting. Not standing in the back, or out in the open room waiting for when it concludes; she's right there sitting with Marius. Afterwards, Marius pulls her over to meet their leader and he learns her name is Eponine.

Cut to three years later and the Les Amis all have their undergraduate degrees and are working on specializing their craft. Eponine is part of them now. She doesn't go to school with them; she doesn't go to school.  She works at a bar on campus and always slips Feiully free drinks.  

Marius noticed the bruise on her shoulder first and she waved him off.

A week later Grantaire notices another, this one in the shape of a hand. She quips an innuendo about how she likes it rough and winks. He laughs and the conversation is over.

One night she's tripping all over the place, stumbling everywhere, Joly sits her down when he sees the bump on her head and diagnoses a concussion.

They start to worry.

And Enjolras thinks why are they worrying? Why are they the ones worried about her? Of course they would be they're her friends except it seems odd to him that her family hadn't noticed. She still lives with her parents, and is constantly fielding calls from them; only picking up when it's her brother or sister. He knows she doesn't have the best relationship with her family but he cannot fathom a pair of parents who would not care if their child was being abused. His parents were never the most attentive or supportive but they always made sure he was healthy and safe.  And then he realizes he knows nothing of her. All he knows is the existence of two siblings; and he didn't know her brother was the boy Courf babysat until last week when he had caught her yelling at the other man for giving her brother ice cream at 9 am.

The group sits her down; does it properly like an intervention. She stares at them, listens patiently as they go off on her boyfriend, whose name has been mentioned casually before but none of them can quite remember. Once they're done she stands.

"I have a different life than you. Than all of you. 'Parnasse and I grew up together. It's always been us."

"That doesn't mean he can abuse you." Marius says standing, "He's--"

"He's not abusing me." She shakes her head. "I come from the side of Paris none of you even know exist.  We fight.  Verbally and physically.  Sometimes he wins, and sometimes I win."  She shrugs.  "I appreciate caring but he's not in charge of our relationship.  I could break up with I wanted to, but I  _don't want to_." 

She gets better at hiding the bruises after that, Enjolras notices. If he didn't see her flinch when Jehan placed his hand on her shoulder leaning over to see the book she was reading, or the way she winced and clutched her ribs after a long trek through the crowded bar Enjolras himself wouldn't have suspected. He wishes to confront her but he trusts her, he trusts she knows how to handle herself.

Four months after their intervention she's knocking on his door and he opens. She smiles sheepishly.

"Can I crash the night?"

"Of course, why?"

"Fight with 'Parnasse." And she disappears in his bathroom, reappearing in pajamas, her hair pulled away from her face.

"When did you move in with him?"  He asks laying sheets on the bed.

"Six, seven months?  Whenever it was my parents kicked me out." She shrugs laying out on the couch. "Thanks." And she closes her eyes, ending the discussion.

She's gone when he awakens in the morning, a note stuck to the fridge.

 

_Seriously, thank you. -Eponine_

 

He sees her a week later at the bar; Courf hugs her and she winces. He tries to ignore it. He can't.

"Eponine--"

"Mind if I crash at yours again?" She interrupts him.

"Not at all. You're always welcome."

"Thank you." She doesn't offer a reason why.

 

She's gone again in the morning. There isn't a note this time.

 

A month passes from the last time she slept at his and Enjolras watches her out of the corner of his eye, looking for slips of a shirt that reveal a bruise, looking for a limp, anything he can use to confront her because he knows what's going on but he doesn't think she does and that scares him more than what's happening.

She's at his door again. She knocks once, heavily. He opens it. Her head is bent, she's coughing, and when she looks up at him her cheek is red and the skin under her left eye is turning purple. She trips when she walks and he knows her escapes but she doesn't smell like alcohol. And then she's in his bathroom washing her face and he's punching the wall because why the hell does _he_ care so much, why is _he_ the one to notice, why didn't Marius, Courf, or Grantaire? She's closer with them.  But maybe she trusts him more.  She chose to come to his place that first night; and thoughts begin racing through his mind one after the other and he feels as though his head is going to explode because he's never thought this fast, so fast that he comes to conclusions before he's done thinking.

"Break up with him. Sleep at mine until you find a new place." He doesn't turn to look at her when she comes out of the bathroom. He doesn't ask her. It's not a choice. She can't continue this destructive behavior and as her friend he has to make her realize that.

"Why?" Her voice is scratchy, but light and teasing at the same time.

"Eponine." He turns to face her holding her hand tight in his. "He's hitting you."

"I hit him back." She smiles and it's dangerous and terrifying and Enjolras is completely enraptured. "He's a violent person."  She continues.  "So am I."

"Break up with him." She doesn't answer. Just stares at him appraisingly.

"Why?" She asks again stepping forward. Her voice reminds him of the girls at school when he was younger, all giggles laughs and smiles and talks of boys and sweet futures filled with love and stability and that's the youngest she's ever looked to him smiling teasingly.

"You're my friend. I care."

"That the only reason?" She's still smiling that infernal smile and stepping closer and Enjolras realizes she's getting too close and he steps back and a fire alights in her eyes and he realizes she recognizes that as surrender.

"Break up with him." He repeats. She steps away.

"I'll think about it."

**Author's Note:**

> this is a oneshot but it won't let me change it so don't be expecting a chapter two


End file.
